Milton Moon Louie

Moon Huy Louie, son of Tue Ark Louie and Kim You Choy, was born on June 14, 1950, in Canton, China. At the age of five, he and his mother entered the United States to join his father. The three lived in Ohio where his sisters, Angie and Terri, were born.

Within a year of Terri’s birth, the family of five moved to San Francisco. Soon three younger sisters, Susan, Margaret, and Maurine, joined the family.

In junior high, Moon became a U.S. citizen. The government official decided Moon needed an American name. She gave him “Milton” as his first name with “Moon” as his middle name. Thus he became Milton Moon Louie.

But more significant than becoming a U.S. citizen with an American name was that at the age of 15, under the teachings of Janice Stockett (his Sunday School teacher and Pastor John Stockett’s wife), Moon became a child of God at the Chinese Church of the Nazarene. He accepted Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior.

Throughout his youth and adult years, Moon served God in various church positions. He gained valuable experience working with different age groups. Then in 1988, after 14 years as an employee with Pacific Bell Telephone Company, he answered God’s call to become a minister.

With Sylvia (his bride of 12 years), he moved to Kansas so he could attend Nazarene Theological Seminary. In 1991, he accepted the assignment as pastor to the English-speaking congregation of San Francisco’s Chinese Church of the Nazarene. In 1994, when Rev. John Liu retired as pastor to the Chinese-speaking congregation, Moon assumed pastoral care for both congregations. In 1999, Moon completed his studies to receive his Master of Divinity degree from Oakland’s American Baptist Seminary of the West.

In 2008, Moon and Sylvia welcomed their two teenage foster daughters, Anna and Michelle Wu, into their home. Upon Moon’s retirement in 2013, the family moved to Oakland. In March 2019, Moon and Sylvia moved to the Lake Park Senior Community.

Moon’s motto for retirement was “Pastors don’t just retire. They continue to serve and inspire.” Moon truly believed those words and sought other opportunities to serve.

He helped in the Chinese Community United Methodist Church’s monthly and summer AiF (Adventures in Faith) ministry and the church’s after school program. He became a volunteer with Oakland Public Library’s Books for Wider Horizons (BFWH) program and enjoyed reading to pre-school children at Yuk Yau Child Development Center.

A favorite Bible verse of Moon’s:

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

Moon is survived by his loving wife Sylvia; by his beloved foster daughters Anna and Michelle Wu; sisters Angie (Ed Lum), Terri (Jim Fitzgerald), Susan (Maurice Herrerias), Margaret (Larry Lee), and Maurine (Paul Seto). Moon was also blessed to have many nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to your favorite charity of choice or to Chinese Church of the Nazarene (912 Greenwich Street, SF, CA 94133).

Thank you for your prayers, support, cards, emails, and telephone calls during these past months. A special thank you to both Lake Park’s skilled nursing facility staff and to Kindred Hospice. With caring hearts and loving hands, they took care of Moon and made him comfortable.

Sylvia, Anna, and Michelle

Celebrate and remember Moon’s life: Monday, January 27, 2020.

Woodlawn Funeral Home/ Memorial Park

11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Memorial meal to follow.